By Anne W. Semmes
Lily Downing and husband David Yudain, a native of Greenwich, have a notable art gallery in North Stamford called the Barn, and last Sunday they hosted their “Sunday Salon” on “A Conversation about Paper.” The two would welcome some 45 curious attendees. As an art dealer, Downing said to the gathering that paper has “always been fascinating…And it is some of the most beautiful art ever created…going back to illuminated manuscripts.”
Downing continued, “I just thought it would be fun to have a conversation with three artists that worked with paper all very differently.” Tricia Wright, also from North Stamford, “makes her own paper, incises and gilds it;” Derek Uhlman, a sculptor, “works with paper”; and Malcolm Moran of Greenwich “makes monotypes and collages.” Also add paper conservator Ann Baldwin, “who conserves it all.”
Tricia Wright was first to share her fascinating creative experience that led to the work on exhibit in the gallery. Awarded an MTA public commission to create artworks for the Metro North railway, “that catapulted” her “from the solitary private world of the studio into a complex multi-part project” she was simultaneously awarded “an artist residency at the Paperwork Studio Dieu Donné” at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“It’s the leading center for papermaking in this country,” said Wright. “It’s a very special place. So, when you’ve got a residency, you work one-to-one with a master papermaker. It’s a very intimate collaborative experience. You come with ideas; you have a discussion – is this possible?” And if so, “how will you make it? So, you’re working with a papermaker, but there are interns and other people there to assist. So, everything you do, all the mistakes you make, is all public. You’re very exposed.”
But that experience “resulted in all of this gilded paperwork you see here.” Wright had “pioneered different ways of working at Donné they hadn’t seen… So, this work has been very special for me because it has dimensional aspects that is not to do with papermaking, but through other kinds of materials.”
Ann Baldwin of Greenwich
Next up was paper conservator Ann Baldwin who served 11 years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in its paper conservation department. “It’s such a well- equipped laboratory and there’s so many relationships with scientists and other departments. It was a very fruitful experience.” She’s now in private practice in Greenwich. “Basically, I specialize in works of art on paper…I’ve taken musty smells out of books, I’ve treated moldy pastel portraits, taken stains off of and out of modern pieces of art that are mixed media.”
“And the good part about conservation,” Baldwin said, “is it’s a combination of craft and art history, which includes understanding the art and appreciating and respecting what the art is supposed to look based on artist intent and respecting its age. But then the other component is the science… We are now using and adapting things that are in the medical world, the biology world, which limit any damage that could be done. The intention is to always respect the art.”
Sculptor Derek Uhlman
Derek Uhlman, based in New Canaan, was up next. Apprenticed at age 19 to Reuben Nakina, at age 25 he was commissioned by the General Food Corporation to sculpt a 37,000-pound marble sculpture called “Stone Flowers.” But he’s interested in “a variety of materials… I have worked in metals, I’ve worked in glass, I’ve worked in cast paper, I’ve worked in plastics.” But he was blown away by the cast paper works of Louise Nevelson. “So, I decided I needed to learn about that, and I have done a series of pieces made out of cast paper, which is a curious concept.”
Malcom Moran of Greenwich
Last up was Greenwich artist Malcolm Moran. “I’m a printmaker. I’m also a painter and drafts person and I like more traditional stuff that has been done for gazillions of years by a lot of other artists.” It wasn’t until later in his career that he got into printmaking, though his family owned a printing company, “started by a great, great grandfather in 1881,” and as a kid he used “to go down to the printing plant and the smell of the inks, which are all oil based.”
Over the years he learned “mostly by trial and error, with some people teaching me what works with what medium, what printing inks or what oil-based paints do to the paper and whether they’ll survive or not…So it is great to work with somebody who will look at a print and say, Malcolm, I don’t think that’s going to work real well. I think you better lighten up on the ink or do this. And that’s terrific because it saves me a lot of tragedy.”
“People have been saying,” he told, “it is a medium which is going to disappear. It is not going to disappear. People love paper, people love books. …It lasts a long time if you use it right, if you don’t use it right, it doesn’t last very long at all. It’s a great medium, it’s a beautiful medium and the traditions are awesome.”
Greenwich attendees comments
There were plenty of exchanges with attendees, including from Greenwich notable John Blankley. “Not to be mercenary, but we Americans do like money, and I really like our dollar bill. The paper is very nice.” But on a recent trip to his native England, he’d noticed the quality of the pound note. “Have you touched one recently,” he asked Wright. “I have,” she said. “You can put them in the washing machine, and they don’t fall apart. They’re plasticized.”
“And Canada infuses their dollars with maple,” added Downing. “They smell like syrup.”
Departing, Greenwich abstract painter Penny Putnam, whose work has been exhibited in the Barn, spoke of being “especially impressed by Moran’s knowledge of the variety of artist quality papers available, and the importance of knowing which papers pair with which media.”
Bea Crumbine, a Greenwich icon, who often attends the Barn events, shared, “It is always fascinating and interesting to hear the artists discuss their processes and influences,”
Susie Baker, another Greenwich icon who often attends the Downing-Yudain events, was impressed she said with the artists’ presentations. “Four very different backgrounds, talents, experiences and expertise! Who knew ‘paper’ could cover so much—no pun intended!”
“People have been saying it is a medium which is going to disappear. It is not going to disappear. People love paper, people love books.” Malcolm Moran.
The Downing Yudain gallery Barn in North Stamford invites three artists and a paper conservator to address the making of paper art before invited attendees.
